


Musical Bones

by QuirkyArtistic



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Dancetale is mentioned but is not the universe we're in, F/M, My First Fanfic, Not all the time but Reader is a streamer, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other characters and relationships to be added once I figure this stuff out, Rating May Change, Reader Is Not Chara (Undertale), Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), Songfic, Tags Are Hard, Wish Fulfillment, anxiety attacks will happen, author is a homestuck so forgive me lol, characters may be ooc, dancing will come up sooner or later, handwaved science stuff, reader has anxiety
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:20:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25554217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuirkyArtistic/pseuds/QuirkyArtistic
Summary: Between sharing your home with a skeleton (who does not live in your goddamn closet, if someone makes that joke again you’re gonna scream-) and hearing constant music that you could thankfully tune out, you personally could almost consider your life normal.That is until a few incidents happen, with your skeleton friend proving the multiple universe theory on accident.So now you have to help him deal with it.Well, adult life was already so goddamn weird. This might as well happen.
Relationships: Sans (Undertale)/Reader
Comments: 12
Kudos: 90





	1. Just Another Normal Evening

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, the author here! Thank you for taking the time to read this!  
> This is essentially my first time writing an X reader seriously and trying not to make it sound like baby’s first fanfic.  
> I have no beta but I have read and re-read my chapters.  
> The reader is kinda based on me, though I try to keep most things ambiguous. But the reader will have anxiety. Basically, there will be some wish fulfillment if you catch my drift.  
> Reader will not be named, and I am going to try to avoid the conventions of using (Y/n) or (name) but will use them if necessary.  
> Characters might seem ooc but I’m trying my best, I’m not good with puns or anything so please forgive me!

Considering everything, life was pretty normal. 

Sure, your housemate was a literal skeleton you met at a bar (you don’t drink but come on, karaoke is fun) but with the emergence of monsters from the mountain a few years back but can’t say it was surprising.

He certainly wasn’t a bad guy, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a bit strange. It’s not like it was easy to hear him in the basement working on the project he kept there but sometimes it could be heard through the floor when you were in the kitchen. Thankfully it wasn’t loud enough that it kept you up at night. So for the most part he was a good housemate.

Your skeletal housemate was named Sans. Well, technically Comic Sans. (Why a font of all things? Maybe it was some kind of skeleton tradition. I mean, his brother is named Papyrus so maybe?) Regardless of the odd name, most of the time the guy was quiet. No idea if he had a day job but he was a perfect housemate despite his laziness, paid his half of the bills, all the usual nonsense that came with a housemate. 

It worked well. With a mostly thankless job, you didn’t mind the quiet or his tinkering down in the basement. And when doing your own hobbies such as art streams, making music covers and playing video games, it wasn’t possible to hear him either. But that might just be in part to the acoustic panels on the walls.

Eventually, it is a bit common that if you live with someone long enough, you’ll start to get to know them better. Though mostly because it felt odd that you didn’t know more than that he liked puns, drinking ketchup, and he was a scientist back in the underground, a long time before they were freed. 

So began the attempts at hanging out, which did not exactly go well at first. 

Strange that you allowed the skeleton to become your housemate without knowing him well first but come on! Sans seemed harmless. 

When you offered him to be your housemate after he mentioned that he needed to find a new place so that he didn’t bother his brother Papyrus with his personal projects, he agreed on the terms after he’d actually gotten to see the house and learned that you lived outside of town. It was far quieter there than any apartment building he could probably find and had a lesser risk of getting a noise complaint. 

Meaning no one to question the loud noises that were sometimes created when one of his experimental machines went a little wrong. And since you were most of the time out of the house for work and the room where you streamed and made videos was soundproofed, it was a pretty much perfect arrangement. 

Of course, that’s not to say you never heard the mishaps of his little experiments. Hell, you even got involved in some once you two had become a bit closer. 

However, that did lead to a mishap that gave you a rather strange condition. You could hear music where there wasn’t any. And it changed depending on certain variables, something you and Sans tested to make sure there wasn’t anything seriously wrong with you. 

Needless to say, after that accident, Sans refused to let you help him with the machine. He didn’t want you to get more strange conditions somehow (you highly doubted that could happen but you weren’t going to argue with him.) 

Though Sans did give you more information on the machine to make up for not allowing you to work on it. Apparently the goal was to prove the multiverse theory as well as to possibly observe timelines. It just so happened that you may have merged with a different version of yourself from either a different timeline/universe, Sans wasn’t entirely sure which. 

He couldn’t really explain the whole, hearing music thing, or the fact that when you heard music you had the urge to dance to it (which was kinda normal but usually it wouldn’t be such a nagging feeling), but so long as it wasn’t hurting you, the both of you didn’t worry about it. 

And surprisingly, you expected something to eventually go wrong and you’d turn into some kinda mutated being. But nope! Fine and dandy, just hearing music and dancing to the beat, you know, living life. 

Things continued as normal, being friends with a skeleton and continuing on as if the previous incident never happened in the first place.

“so it’s normal for human females to bleed once a month?” “Yup.” “isn’t that painful?” “Depends. I mean, technically, it shouldn’t be. But I really can’t complain. At least humans don’t have it as bad as horses.” 

Well… mostly normal. 

It was the end of a rather stressful work week for yourself, and Sans had decided he wanted to hang out that night, try to relax a little to try to help with the burnout you were feeling from work. 

Eventually, the movie that had been put on was forgotten as you two chose conversation over it. Said conversation was pretty random, having actually started with some random history fact you remembered because of the movie for some odd reason, but somewhere along the way, it began jumping from one topic to another, and you had somehow ended up on biology and evolution. 

“wait, what’s so bad about horses?” Sans asked, a bit confused. “they seem fine?” 

“Hoo boy, you have no idea how fucked up their internal workings are.” 

And now you were showing pictures of the flaws in a horse. 

Okay, never mind, maybe for your strangeness, it was not that unusual. 

“…is this because of selective breeding that humans did or-“ 

“Nope, all-natural.” You replied. 

“what the-” 

“I know right? I mean human’s backs are fucked up from making the transition to bipeds, but at least we don’t have issues where we could die from a hurt toe.” 

“why??” 

“You really wanna dive into that discussion?” 

“…not really. i think i’ve heard enough.”

Holding back a bit of laughter, you shook your head. “So, how are things with the machine?” 

The skeleton beside you shrugged. “nothing too different. the readings have been what could be considered normal.” 

“Any progress on fixing whatever the hell happened to me?”

It’s not that you minded the music and dancing, but you had wondered that since you were merged with a different version of yourself from another universe/timeline that something would happen to that said place. 

Sans sighed quietly, sitting up from his slouched position against the arm of the couch, turning his eye-lights on you. “minimal. it’s not exactly easy to replicate what happened, seeing as how the machine literally blew up last time.” 

“Well have you pinpointed where the alternate version of me came from?” From your own personal investigation, you had figured out that the other universe’s monsters were having to do something with dancing, as you could vaguely recall things from that universe, especially when it came to the monsters that you found yourself around.

Memories pretty much merged seamlessly until the arrival/freedom of monsters. Two variants of a single memory surprisingly caused headaches.

“no, not exactly. i think i’m close, so maybe we’ll have you back to normal soon?” Sans skeptically spoke, his grin being more akin to a grimace.

You let out a fake groan and flopped back against the couch before ‘sliding’ and bumping against Sans, looking up at him. “Will you let me help?” 

“no. you know what happened last time-“ 

You cut him off by popping your knuckles. It minorly hurt, but it was a quick way to stop an argument that you didn’t want to have. He shut up. It sort of unsettled him when you’d pop any part of your body. 

“You just had to say no. I wasn’t going to argue.” Sitting up, you glanced over to the tv, where the movie was rolling its credits. 

So, deciding that maybe you two should end the hangout for now, you stood from the couch, walking towards the stairs. 

But you stopped as you rested your hand on the handrail. 

A familiar feeling sunk in your gut, your anxiety spiking for some reason you just couldn’t pinpoint. Taking a slow deep breath, you looked back to Sans.

“I know you’re going to go work on the machine. Please be careful.” The anxiety lacing your voice was obvious, and you felt yourself grimace, hating how it sounded, anxiety spiking again at the thought of guilt-tripping your friend. But Sans, who had begun to head towards the basement, looked back and offered a smile, most likely hoping to reassure. “it’ll be fine.” 

“Promise me?” You knew he hated making promises, and you hated making him do so, but sometimes it was the only thing that could put your anxiety at ease. 

“i promise.” Sans replied without hesitation. You felt yourself relax a bit, and the anxiety still lingered but you figured that was probably because you were tired from the work-week. 

“I’m going take a shower. Try not to blow anything up.” You joked, heading upstairs to take said shower, and then most likely go to bed after. 

You just hoped the bubbling anxiety in your chest would settle while in the shower.


	2. How do you screw up that quickly?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow um... this took longer to update than it should have. College sorta sucker-punched me into a state of creative exhaustion. But hey, the chapter is finally here. Hope you enjoy!

What was that saying again? No rest for the wicked? Or weary? 

Well, you were certainly feeling that now. 

Halfway through your shower, just as you were finally feeling relaxed and were happily singing your heart out, you felt the entire house shake with a loud explosion. 

Loud enough to be heard from upstairs. 

You felt your heart drop to your toes and your anxiety reared its head faster than you thought it ever could, your voice dying in your throat. 

And cue the panic. 

You didn’t even bother to shut off the shower as you rushed out, grabbing a towel to cover yourself, hair soaking wet as you ran for the basement to check on Sans, as well as trying not to slip. Mind rushing, heart pounding in your chest, silently hoping to the stars that you would not be greeted with a pile of dust. 

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case when you slammed open the door to the basement, but instead, you were met with two skeletons instead of one, as well as the damaged, practically almost destroyed machine that could barely be seen with all the smoke spewing from the device. 

Relief replaced anxiety upon seeing Sans unharmed, besides his jacket being a tiny bit scorched, and the music from him being a little softer than usual and being clashed with by the other skeleton’s music. The feeling of embarrassment rose at your overreaction, not to mention you were only covered by a towel but that’s beside the point. 

Taking a deep breath while flicking on the switch for the vent, you turned your full attention to Sans.

“Sans… what did I say right before I went to go take a shower?” 

“…not to blow anything up?”

“And what happened?” 

“okay well to be fair, the machine didn’t really blow up entirely?” 

You glanced at the smoking machine, glad that it wasn’t on fire before glancing over to the second skeleton in the room, who was more focused on the machine than the conversation you and Sans were currently having. 

“And what about him? He looks like if you let me dress you up using only Hot Topic clothing.” You dropped your voice to a whisper. “Seriously, did you drag a different version of yourself into this universe? We already have enough problems trying to fix me.”

Sans glanced to the edgier version of himself before getting up and walking to your side. “look, um.. maybe go finish your shower and i’ll handle this.” 

Giving Sans a skeptical look, you glanced over to the other skeleton, who was now looking at the both of you (well, more you than Sans- wait are his teeth pointy?!- Oh stars above focus!). You looked back at your friend. “…Don’t destroy the house.” You knocked on the wooden door frame before walking back up the steps. 

“I mean that! Seriously, do you know how hard it is to find a good house in this economy?!” 

Hearing Sans’ laughter at your odd remark put you at ease, and now that you were certainly feeling a lot better, taking a shower was your top priority. You’re pretty sure Sans can handle himself (oh stars does that count as a pun? Does that even work in this case? Oh you gotta tell him that later!). 

Anyway, after finishing up in the shower, getting dressed in your most comfortable clothes, not bothering to be gussied up in the slightest except for tending to your hair at best, you finally went downstairs. 

Thankfully, you weren’t met with chaos, but instead the back of a grumpy skeleton. The theme from him had its dark undertones like you had heard before but nothing tense. You lingered by the stairs, looking around for Sans. 

He didn’t seriously leave this other version of himself on the couch, did he? Unsupervised too?

Well... Time to introduce yourself and try not to startle him. The last thing you wanted was a fight and if Sans shares anything in common with other versions of himself, is that the strongest attack comes first out of the gate, and you really really did not want gaster blasters being summoned and shooting beams in your house. 

The first time was enough for a lifetime. 

And now you were hesitating because your brain was now jumping around on how to approach without causing said fight. You had no idea if he is jumpy just like Sans could be after a nightmare, or if he was someone who would just cause trouble just to cause it- Oh crap was this guy still underground in his universe?! 

And of course, due to drowning in your spiraling thoughts (and staring at the ground while trying to think, be honest with yourself here), you didn’t even realize when said skeleton looked back at you, not to mention when he actually got up and walked over. 

Snapping back to reality when it clicked that someone was looming over you… well, your reaction wasn’t exactly the calmest. 

Having anxiety and startling way too easily when being scatterbrained resulted in the combination of you nearly jumping and stumbling back to try to put some space in between you and the larger skeleton. 

At least you were quick enough to grab the damn handrail for the stairs before you smacked your head, but you will admit, the back of your legs were probably going to be bruised. 

And then the edgy, shark teeth motherfucker starts laughing. 

You had half the mind to snap at the skeleton but you were exhausted and really, you didn’t want a shouting match to break out. 

Groaning as you took a seat on the stairs, rubbing at the back of your legs, you look up at the skeleton. “Oh ha ha laugh it up buddy.” 

At least his theme sounded a bit more like Sans’ now, that familiar goofy upbeat melody putting you at ease, even if there was a bit of a darker undertone. Guess that’s more of a ‘different universe’ change than an ‘emotion’ change. 

“So, now that the classic, you scare the human part has been done, hello.” You simply say, smiling a little as you introduce yourself. “Am I going to have to refer to you as ‘the other Sans’ or is there something shorter I can call you?” 

“you can call me whatever you want.” He smirked. 

“I will gladly call you Hot Topic.” You shot back with a grin. “But if I’m being serious…” Glancing over the skeleton you took in the differences you could now clearly see. He was definitely taller than both you and Sans… and missing the usual blues that accompanied your boney friend, blacks, golds and reds taking their place. That made you start to wonder. “What color do you blush?” 

“what the fuck kinda question is that??” 

Hm. Well time to test a little hypothesis. 

Stretching your arms over your head, you popped your spine and tried to keep yourself from grinning as a red blush dusted the larger skeleton’s cheeks. 

“Red it is then.” You let yourself laugh, getting up from the steps. “Where’s my Sans anyway? Can’t believe he left you unsupervised…” You looked towards the stairwell to the basement. “Let me guess, trying to stop the machine smoking?” 

“yup.” 

“Why the hell aren’t you helping him?” You asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“eh. we got at each other’s throats. so i fucked off. wanted to get a good look at ya too.”

Now that you were a bit calmer and collected, you could definitely hear an accent in his speaking. Of course, you were terrible with accents but it was probably from a city or something, who cares. 

And then your brain clicked with his sentence. “Huh. You know, I expected you to be wary of me. Since I’m a human and all? I guess Frisk made their way through the underground already.” 

“nah the kid is like halfway through the usual- wait how’d ya know? i didn’t tell ya anything about my universe.” 

“It’s really not that hard to guess. You just seem like my Sans if the underground had something like Hot Topic...” You muttered. “Besides, Sans and I are pretty open about everything. And you two are like.. opposites. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together and make guesses, assuming that the kid is a constant as well as other factors...” 

Red blinked some. “you two fuckin’ or somethin’? ‘cause there’s no way in hell that i’d ever tell my friend something like that.”

You were too tired for that question. “…I know there’s that saying ‘fortune favors that bold’ but damn, I was not expecting that question tonight…” You yawned some, sighing afterwards. “We’re just friends. Not to mention, I worked on that machine with him for a time.”

“i-“ 

“Nope! Don’t want to hear it!” You quickly interjected, sighing. “Look, things are different here. Now, I am fucking exhausted from my work week and that near anxiety attack I had when the machine blew up, so I’m going to bed.” You rubbed your eyes with a quiet huff as you turned around and started walking up the stairs. 

“Talk to Sans about the guest room, otherwise you’ll probably end up sleeping on the couch.” You called over your shoulder before finally heading to your own room, but it seemed that sleep did not want to come, no matter how exhausted you were as you laid in bed.

On the bright side, you could at least hear Sans talking to Red faintly, so that’s a weight off your shoulders. 

Checking your phone, you groaned some. 

Almost midnight. 

… 

Well, if you can’t fall asleep, you might as well do something that will help to relax. 

A little late-night stream never hurt anyone, right?


	3. Midnight Streams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh... not gonna lie, I needed some comfort from the stress so this is sorta indulgence. But that's what this fic is anyway, pure damn indulgence for myself sooooo I'm not ashamed.

“I’ll let the stream fill up a little before getting started.” Yawning quietly as you wrapped a fluffy blanket around yourself as you sat back in your chair, you gave people time to get into the stream. 

“ ’What am I doing up?’ Great question… As I put in the title, I am having a bout of insomnia.” Turning on the fairy lights that hung up around your stream room, you let your eyes adjust for a little while humming. “I might play some games in a bit, maybe sing something that’s easy on my throat, I don’t know yet.” You mumbled, rubbing your eyes. “Good thing it’s a Friday am I right?”

You glanced over the games you had on your computer, sighing some. “I don’t really feel like playing anything multiplayer… I mean, a game of Among Us is nice and all but I’m like.. not coherent enough to strategize if I’m the imposter, you know? Plus I’m pretty sure most of my friends are reasonable and aren’t up this late.” 

Even if you weren’t fully coherent enough for strategizing in games, you were alert enough to hear the footsteps coming up the stairs. 

… Whatever, you were too tired to get up and lock the door, plus, you were pretty sure Red could probably shortcut into the room just like Sans could if the door would be locked. 

“Should probably say… I don’t know how much I’ll be streaming for the next couple of weeks? Some things came up, and I’m a little.. well, wound up to say the least. That’s kinda why I’m streaming now..” 

You heard a knock on the door and sighed, slumping back in your chair. “I’m streaming Sans, you can come in if you want.” 

Your viewers had seen Sans before, it wasn’t any secret that you lived with him. Hell, you saw some people draw art of the time you did a Q&A video with him about how it was living with a monster housemate.

But you were still a bit surprised when Sans actually came in. “you alright? you don’t usually do unplanned late night streams unless you can’t sleep.” You looked to the side as he stopped there, leaning against the chair lightly. 

“Yea I’m good.. everything good?” You avoided talking about Red or the machine. Personal matters being revealed to the public would just make people want to know more. 

“yea,” He glanced to the computer screens before looking back to you. “so. tryin to relax?” 

“Mhm. Care to join?” You jokingly asked, rubbing your eyes with a small smile, knowing he was going to say-

“sure, playing anything tonight?” He asked as he moved around the room, grabbing the extra chair you kept in the room and rolling it over to your side.

You paused, looking at him. “I uh… I don’t know, hadn’t decided yet..” What a surprise. You didn’t even have to look at your chat to see it was going by quickly with the excitement. 

Taking a moment to think, you mute your microphone, turning to look at him completely. “Is everything okay? You usually don’t join in on my streams unless I beg to the stars and back.” 

He rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding making eye contact. “well.. i did kinda make you panic today. not to mention the machine… so i figure i might as well make it up to you and join in.” 

You nodded some before turning back to your screen, unmuting the mic. “Sorry about that everyone, I needed a tiny bit of privacy for a moment....” 

Chat was thankfully understanding, filled with reassurances.

You looked through the list of games on your computer before a grin grew on your face. “How does Clone Hero sound?” 

“i’m up for anything. you sure you can handle it though?” That was a question more directed at your urges to dance to music, but you shot him a grin.

“Oh please, I may be tired but I can play a basic rhythm game.” Setting up the game and grabbing the two guitar controllers you kept around, you handed one to Sans before sitting in your chair. “But I swear to the stars if you pick a hard song.” 

Taking turns on the songs chosen was easy enough and keeping your urge to dance to the songs in check was easy enough to manage by tapping your foot to the songs. Unfortunately for you, eventually a hard song slipped in, chosen, of course, by Sans.

“…Did you seriously just pick a Cain’s Offering song?” 

“yup.” 

“Oh fuck you.” You jokingly said, turning your attention back to your computer screen. “This is gonna suck.” 

…You kinda gave up halfway through the solo portion of the song.

You may have been great at rhythm games, but with being exhausted? Well that was bound to happen. Not to mention Sans could be competitive when he wanted to be. And when it was finally over the slight glare you shot at him caused him to chuckle. “You know I’m tired… why did you pick a power metal song?” You whined a little, slumping back into your chair with a bit of a pout. 

“speaking of, how are you feeling now?” Sans asked, leaning over while still laughing a little. 

“Well I don’t feel anxious now if that’s what you’re asking.” You glanced to your screen as a superchat came up. 

That being ‘GO TO BED!!’ accompanied by a very familiar name. 

CoolSkeleton95.

“Papyrus, what are you doing up this… late..” You trailed off as you checked the time, grimacing. 4 AM. “I… think I should end the stream here you guys. Try and get some sleep.” 

You signed off before shutting the stream down, sitting back in your chair with a sigh. “…Shouldn’t you go to bed too?” You asked as you looked to the skeleton beside you, raising an eyebrow. 

“well technically I don’t need the same amount of sleep that you do-“ 

“Doesn’t matter Sans… you’re an insomniac too. Not to mention you’re probably just as stressed about the machine.” You muttered as you reached over and grabbed his hand, giving the bony appendage a light squeeze. “Are you seriously that worried about Red doing something?” 

“red?” 

“I gave him that nickname- But that’s beside the point I’m trying to make.” You muttered. “You know I can take care of myself right?” 

“of course i know that…“ He didn’t look you in the eyes, keeping his gaze to the side. 

“You’re doing that thing.” 

“what thing?” 

“You never meet my eyes when you want to ask something you think is embarrassing.” You gently let go of his hand and crossed your arms, leaning over towards him. “You know if you don’t tell me I’ll just start guessing worse things than what you probably want to ask. I will step into nsfw category.” You sleepily teased, watching the cyan blush light up Sans’ cheekbones. 

Of course, when he didn’t respond you opened your mouth to start guessing and he interrupted before you could even get the first (admittedly a bit nsfw) guess out.

“can we share your bed tonight?” 

Now that was a bit unexpected. Don’t get it wrong, it wasn’t like you hadn’t shared a bed before. You had done it a few times before when he had nightmares, and you weren’t really shy about it, for reasons of: one, you liked being able to ease Sans’ own worries since he did that so often for you, and two, skeleton cuddles are surprisingly nice, though Sans refuses to admit he clings in his sleep like a goddamn koala. 

Not to mention, there had also been times where you had to carry Sans to bed because he had passed out working on the machine, and because of his clinging in his sleep, you sorta just… collapsed into the bed with him and just told yourself screw it because damn he has a grip in his sleep and pulling yourself out of it just felt like too much work.

But him asking like that? He never asked without a clear explanation. 

“I… was not expecting that.” You admitted, sitting up. “Everything okay or..?” 

“everythings fine just-” He let out a sigh, shoulders slumping, his blush growing a bit brighter. It was pretty clear that he didn’t want to explain further. You could definitely understand the struggle of being unable to explain how you felt without causing yourself more trouble, so you dropped the subject. It was late (well, early but beside the point). 

“Alright, you don’t have to try to explain.” Standing up and shutting off your fairy lights, you looked to Sans with a small smile. “Though we probably won’t get to sleep long.. ya know.. considering the whole… Red thing.” 

“wanna bet?” 

“… You’re gonna sleep for hours aren’t you?” 

“probably.” 

“You are insufferable.” 

“you know you like me for it.” 

Shaking your head, you headed to your room with Sans. “What room did you direct Red to anyway?” 

“well originally i was just going to make him share a room with me.” He explained, sticking his hands into his jacket’s pockets, shrugging a little.

“Last he told me, you two got at each other’s throats?” You asked as you opened the door to your room, letting Sans walk in first.

“yea… that’s why i just showed him a guest room.” 

“… You avoided showing him where my room is didn’t you?” You muttered as you shut your door behind yourself, stretching carefully as you made your way over to your bed, getting under the covers. 

“maaaybe.” He dragged out, taking off his jacket and tossing it into the corner of the room. 

You smiled a little as you laid back with a yawn, rubbing your eyes. “Wow protective much?” You teased, lying on your side to face the skeleton as he laid beside you. 

“he’s gonna find out eventually, so it’s not really being ‘protective’.” Sans attempted to justify. 

“Sure it isn’t.” You said in a slight sing song tone, looking at Sans, noticing a slight twitch in his hand. “You want to cuddle don’t you?” 

“what?? no?!” Aaaand there’s the cyan blush again. 

“Stars above, it’s really not that embarrassing.” You smiled some, moving over to the skeleton and cuddling up to him. “Like, seriously, cuddling can be a platonic thing. It’s doesn’t always have to be romantic, remember?” You reminded him as you rested your head lightly against his sternum. 

It took a few moments for the cyan glow to die down before the skeleton wrapped his arms around you. “…yea, i know.” He muttered against your hair as he yawned. 

“Get some sleep you insomniac.” You muttered, shutting your eyes. “I’ll handle Red when I wake up. But I bet you that he’ll sleep in.” 

“no more talking, sleep time.” Sans mumbled, and soon enough you heard him fall asleep. So, you drew up the covers a bit more and cuddled as close as you could to your skeletal friend with a smile. 

You may have issues to handle with Red when you have to get up, but right now? You might as well enjoy the peace of snuggling up into your best friend’s arms.


	4. Early Morning Melodies and a little Introspection

Groaning face down into your pillow as your phone began to ring, you blindly reached over to your bedside table and grabbed the offending device, listening a few seconds to the ringtone. 

“...and let me play among the stars-“ You answered as soon as the song clicked in your sleepy mind. Guess you know why your usual lazy skeleton wasn’t still in the bed with you. 

“Saaans..” You whined. “Why are you calling meee?” 

“you were still asleep?” The surprise in his voice made you take a glance at your phone’s clock. 10:00 AM. So about six hours of sleep. Not too bad for a bout of insomnia. “i honestly thought you would have been awake by now.” 

“Well I wasn’t… ‘m more surprised you woke up before me but…” You mumbled, sitting up and stretching. “Might as well get up now… Why’d you call anyway?” 

“well i’m at alphys’ house now. i wanted to check and make sure red wasn’t causing trouble.” 

“As far as I can tell, he’s still asleep..” You muttered, walking out your room, listening for any sort of noise. “Speaking of… I’m shocked you actually got up before me, you lazybones.” You muttered on a yawn as you made your way down to the kitchen. “I didn’t expect you to go straight to Alphys. You really that worried about the whole Red thing?” Thankfully, coffee was already made, so you fixed yourself a cup. 

You technically could have just gone back to bed, but then again, you really didn’t want to have something happen while you could have been up to prevent it. Stars know that you’d never be able to live that down with the anxiety that would no doubt rear it’s head as soon as your momentary peace passed. 

“i’m not worried, just frustrated with the machine.” 

“Mhm.” You muttered, microwaving your caffeinated drink. “Thanks for putting the coffee machine on by the way.” 

“i didn’t put it on?” 

“Oh.. then Red is up after all.” Glancing over to the stairway to the basement, you listened for a few moments. “That or he passed out downstairs..” You wondered to yourself if you should go check on the other skeleton as you pulled your now hot coffee from the microwave. “Okay well… I’m gonna go check on Red… I think he’s down in the basement working on the machine so…” 

“please be careful.” 

“You’re talking to the person who managed to survive your first attack. I think I can handle Red.” 

“…you’re never gonna let me live that down huh.” 

“Nope!”

You could hear the skeleton sigh. “well, just be careful around him. his universe is a lot different from ours. i’ll be back soon, okay?” 

“Mhm, bye, see you when you get home.” You hung up, heading downstairs with your mug, listening for some sort of indicator of Red’s presence. Said presence was sensed when you finally heard his theme. It was quiet… so he was either focused or asleep, or maybe just really calm. And it could be either one.

Quietly stepping into the basement, you looked over to the destroyed machine (that had thankfully stopped smoking) before looking elsewhere to try and find Red.

Who you found head down on the table, with the machine’s schematics in front of him, wearing headphones. 

…Wait, headphones?

Glancing over the table again, you noticed a MP3 player. More precisely, it was the MP3 player you gave to Sans so he wouldn’t be sitting in silence down here in the basement when he worked. 

Reason being, Sans had mentioned once that he disliked the silence of the basement sometimes, then tried to backpedal and brush it off. So as a gift, you bought a good set of headphones (since earbuds weren’t exactly practical for a monster who had no ears) and a MP3 and filled it with some music that originally wasn’t your own (classical and random shit to be honest, you tried to make a playlist of stuff you thought he would like, okay?). 

But Sans did eventually come to you and asked if you could show him how to add your covers to the device, which kinda.. embarrassed you? You really didn’t know how to feel. 

(And this is you trying not to put yourself down, since you had been told quite often that your singing was good and not terrible like you tended to insist.) 

So.. with that in mind..

Maybe Red doesn’t like the silence either. 

He wasn’t asleep from what you could tell, maybe tired, but if you knew anything, its that Sans can fake sleep like a pro, and you figured that extended to Red.

Deciding that he didn’t need to be watched over after all, you headed back to the kitchen to make yourself something to eat, even if the feeling in your stomach probably wasn’t going away anytime soon. 

But you’ll chalk that up to not wanting to eat early in the morning. 

Now you had a decision to make. Do you actually put in effort and make something to eat, like eggs or pancakes, or do you just make yourself cereal and move on with your day? 

….

Well it was the weekend; you might as well treat yourself to a nice breakfast after the wild ride of yesterday. 

But what to actually make?

Stars above, your indecisiveness will be the death of you. 

Might as well stick with something Sans eats too, doubting that either skeletons actually ate something, even if it was 10 AM (meaning it was technically around lunch time but fuck that).

So pancakes should work. 

You weren’t an amazing cook, average at best, but you were at least better than Papyrus before someone actually had the heart to explain to both him and Undyne that no, you do not turn up the heat so much that your stove explodes. 

That person actually being you after you invited them to your home and they tried to cook dinner... You consider that your proudest moment since it was one of the times you managed to push past your anxiety. 

Sure, you were still anxious and you apologized profusely after, but hey! You saved your kitchen from mass destruction. 

But back to the pancakes! You shuffled around your kitchen after finishing your coffee, grabbing ingredients, etcetera, the usual mumbo-jumbo. 

You stopped as you looked to the small bluetooth speakers placed off to the side. Before the incident, you tended to listen to music when you were cooking, mostly instrumentals for songs you planned to cover. 

You still did, don’t get it wrong, but you really only did it when you were alone. You wouldn’t necessarily dance to the music; you could always keep that in check by swaying some or (and this is what you considered embarrassing when you weren’t alone) acting out scenes from your mind while singing.

But thinking it over.. Red had the headphones on down in the basement and probably wouldn’t be able to hear you, and Sans was at Alphys.. and those two could spend hours talking to each other when it came to scientific things. 

So maybe it was okay to indulge a little in some music. 

Grabbing your phone, you looked through your list of songs you planned to cover. From Broadway to movies, or just other genre… decisions, decisions. 

Well duets are out. You preferred having a partner to sing with after all and February was a bit away.

You paused in your scrolling and grinned some as a particular title caught your eye. 

Skeletons on Parade – Ludo. 

You forgot you had that song on this list! You’ll have to keep that song in mind for October. But for now, it was January and you liked to start off with songs that were relaxing, to ease the anxiety that a new year brings, or just something calm you weren’t entirely sure.

But you weren’t intent on practicing for a cover this morning… You should really just pick a random song and play it before your stomach starts growling. 

So you decided to scroll quickly and suddenly stop. Oh. 

Self-Inflicted Achromatic huh..

Guess you forgot you had that on the list. 

Whatever. You cast it to the speakers and started making breakfast. 

~~

You completely forgot how sad this song could be..

It brought back memories of when you moved away from home and your friends. The anxiety almost became debilitating. You were going through each day like a robot, not really living. Sure you had your hobbies that gave you brief moments of happiness but they felt rare as the real world pushed down on you. 

And then monsters emerged from the mountain and your life changed for the better. 

Monsters are so kind, and you advocated for them as much as you could when it came to helping them become accepted. You still do, especially for the monsters in your life. And things were… okay. 

There were still some things to overcome of course, monster-human marriage being one of the main things at the forefront of discussion (the LQBTQ+ community came in full force to help, which you were glad for, such wonderful people), and there was always some people shouting about how it was apparently wrong and against whatever religion they prescribed to-

“you’ve got a hellva voice on you. what else can it do?” 

Being lost in thought and song, you startled hard when you heard Red, and you may have flushed a little. 

“A little warning would have been nice???” You squeaked, putting aside the (admittedly third) finished plate of pancakes. Red just laughs, and 

Sighing, you held out one of the plates of pancakes to him. “Here. I shouldn’t give this to you, considering you just scared me, but I couldn’t eat these all if I tried and I’d rather not waste food.” 

“aw thanks doll.” Oh great, pet names again. You chose to ignore it and sat down at the table, eating your breakfast, ignoring the warmth of your cheeks. You couldn’t help it, your Sans wasn’t really a flirt and you never got flirted with unless it was by some jackass. You’ve certainly tried to flirt but it could be taken in an odd way. 

So you decided to tease. “Which do you prefer, in-person or the recordings on the MP3?” You kept your eyes on your breakfast, but you couldn’t help the slight grin when you heard Red basically sputter for a moment or so. 

Ha, point for you. 

“Since you heard me I might as well ask.” You glanced over to the skeleton, who was looking anywhere but you. “You don’t like silence either?” 

“why’d ya ask that?” 

“Because that’s why the MP3 player is in the basement. To fill the silence.” 

“…”

You dropped the conversation as soon as you realized Red had nothing more to ask or say. Seems like you’ve left the skeleton speechless. 

“i wasn’t kiddin’ earlier. you’ve got a nice voice sweetheart.” 

“I appreciate the compliment but I’d also appreciate if you’d maybe drop the pet names for now?” You had to lay a boundary somewhere for your own sanity. Red was nice and all but you didn’t particularly appreciate flirting if you barely know anything about him. 

(well okay technically you did know a lot about him, since you figure your previous hunches had been correct and really the only thing that changed between Sans and Red was the way they outwardly behaved, Red had this whole front thing going on you could just tell-)

“crap, is it botherin’ you?” 

Okay that surprised you. You recognized anxiety when you heard it. 

You begin sputtering and trying to explain. 

“It- It’s not necessarily that it bothers me but like- fuck I don’t wanna equivocate it to like, catcalling like some jerks do but also I can tell its just how you are and really, you aren’t being like, fucking weird about it-“ 

_Fuck fuck fuck just shut up oh my fucking stars-_

So you shut your mouth and just, hit your head on the table with a groan.

“…yea, i’ll try to drop the pet names for now, don’t worry ‘bout it.” 

You literally had no words after you made yourself look like a fool in your mind so you gave the skeleton a thumbs up. 

“uh.. you good?” 

“I am a world class human mess if you couldn’t tell.” You didn’t even bother to lift your head from the table. 

“…some of your hair got in the syrup.” 

“Fuuuuckkkk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who got murdered by college? This bitch! But hey, I finally managed to finish this chapter! Sorry for how long this took ^^; 
> 
> Also, side note if/when I finish this story I will probably go back and rewrite it, because this is technically time writing fanfic and attempting it like- seriously? It's like.. so bad I am so sorry. But it is mostly wish fulfillment for my dumbass brain. So we'll see ^^


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